Company Taps Vertical Innovation in Data Storage and Object Storage Software, Delivering a System that Rivals the Scale and TCO of Traditional Cloud Infrastructure

SAN JOSE, CA – April 8, 2015 – /BackupReview.info/ — For data centers battling massive data growth, flat budgets and limited IT resources, HGST (@HGSTStorage), a Western Digital company (NASDAQ: WDC), today announced its Active Archive System, an object storage system that enables businesses to easily store, retain and harness the power of data. Delivering 4.7 petabytes (PB) of raw data storage in a single rack, the HGST Active Archive System is a ready out-of-the-box object storage system that helps data centers easily evolve from siloed data storage to cloud-scale active archiving. For data that is past the create and modify phase of its life, and in need of long-term retention with fast access, the Active Archive System provides unprecedented levels of accessibility, scalability, simplicity and affordability. Its breakthrough TCO beats the white box economics of traditional cloud infrastructure to enable organizations to store and access more data, driving deeper insights and ultimately unlocking the value of their data.

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“HGST’s Active Archive System supports our strategy to bring higher value to the market so customers can transform their data into business value,” said Dave Tang, senior vice president and general manager, Elastic Storage Platforms Group, HGST. “Data has become the currency of the new economy. The ability to store, retain and interact with data enables businesses to gain new insights to help boost productivity, make better decisions and even predict the future. We recognized this tectonic shift and have delivered the only solution that can offer superior economics with industry leading rack density, resiliency, and access at petabyte-scale. Leveraging our investment in object storage software and our unique approach of vertical innovation, the Active Archive System is positioned to help users unlock the power of their data.”

Vertical Innovation Powers the Third Platform
The Active Archive System has been singularly designed to address the need for rapid access to massive data stores. HGST’s recent acquisition of Amplidata enables the delivery of advanced object storage software, providing the foundation for a resilient object storage system that delivers the highest level of data durability in the industry, surviving an entire data-center outage when deployed across multiple sites. Utilizing HGST’s most advanced, 8TB, second-generation HelioSeal™ hard drives, coupled with tightly integrated, tuned and optimized hardware, the scale-out object storage system delivers the performance, efficiency and scale required for public and private cloud data centers. The combination of industry leading power efficiency at one watt per TB, and an acquisition cost that beats white box economics enables the system to deliver breakthrough TCO that is 50-70 percent lower than alternative open source and commercial object storage systems. Through this tight end-to-end system integration, HGST has delivered a 3-5X increase in density and power efficiency compared to other scale-out solutions.

The uniqueness of the HGST Active Archive System is its Simplicity at Scale™ foundation. It has never been as easy and cost-effective to scale-out in multiple petabyte increments so that businesses can focus resources on growing their revenue instead of managing their infrastructure. The HGST Active Archive System is a plug-and-play, S3 compliant scale-out object storage system; it only requires network and power connections to each rack to be put to work. The Active Archive System offers limitless scaling without the costly need for replication, and its open interface supports ease of integration and flexibility as needs evolve.

“Today, HGST has delivered on its strategy to expand into higher value storage platforms and systems,” said John Rydning, Research Vice President, IDC. “HGST has intersected a critical juncture in the market as companies look to accelerate the rollout of third platform solutions. The plug-and-play simplicity of an integrated hardware platform matched with the strategic acquisition of Amplidata’s object cloud storage software has resulted in an innovative solution that addresses the rapidly evolving needs of cloud service providers and data-intensive organizations.”

The HGST Active Archive System is available for immediate orders. The system will be sold through HGST sales partners, including distributors, solution providers, system integrators and select OEMs. Multiple options for service and support are also available. For more information, please visit www.hgst.com/activearchive.

About HGST
HGST, a Western Digital company (NASDAQ: WDC), develops innovative, advanced hard disk drives, enterprise-class solid state drives, external storage solutions and services used to store, preserve and manage the world’s most valued data. HGST addresses customers’ rapidly changing storage needs by delivering intelligent storage devices that tightly integrate hardware and software to maximize solution performance. Founded by the pioneers of hard drives, HGST provides high-value storage for a broad range of market segments, including Enterprise, Cloud, Data Center, Mobile Computing, Consumer Electronics and Personal Storage. HGST was established in 2003 and maintains its U.S. headquarters in San Jose, California. To find out more about HGST enterprise-class HDD, SSD and SW solutions, please visit www.hgst.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to expected availability dates for HDD and/or SSD storage products. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including changes in markets, demand, uncertainties related to the development, introduction, and timing of products based on new technologies, and other risks and uncertainties listed in Western Digital’s recent SEC filings to which your attention is directed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak on as of the date hereof, and HGST/WD undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

One MB is equal to one million bytes, one GB is equal to one billion bytes, one TB equals 1,000GB (one trillion bytes) and one PB equals 1,000TB when referring to storage capacity. Usable capacity will vary from the raw capacity due to object storage methodologies and other factors.

HelioSeal, Simplicity at Scale, and Long Live Data are trademarks, and Ultrastar is a registered trademark of HGST, Inc. and its Affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.